Re: Defining "Ragtime" and "Joplin"
By Stephen Kent Goodman
Please post in response to the "defining ragtime" posting.
Unfortunately, due to the agenda of Janis & Blesh, ragtime has unfairly been attributed to a music "developed chiefly by African Americans". Musicological reserach since "They All Played Ragtime" unearthed the fact that ragtime was America's first true multi-ethnic music- it was integrated without fanfare and without the self-consciousness of integration. In St. Louis, for example, German-Americans and Blacks lived in the same poor neighborhoods; the black kids spoke German; the Germans had black friends. The Blacks were influenced by the German marches they heard and added their own syncopation and styles to the "straight" European music forms.
Ragtime itself was probably born in South America and the Carribean; listen to examples of the French Carribean music from the mid-19th century. Ships bringing both goods and music to New Orleans during this time most likely planted the seeds of what was later attributed to Blacks "inventing" ragtime.
The two greatest myths surrounding ragtime: 1) That there were no white (or Euro-American for our PC friends) composers who innovated it (what about William Krell or Arthur Pryor, the latter writing innovative and highly original rags not for piano, but for concert band!) and 2) That it is primarily a piano music (what about all the rags that were originally composed for concert band- most never issued in piano sheet music form?)
Today, there is more quality ragtime being written by both black and white composers than at any time since the 1910s! It is truly America's "Red, White & Blue" music and represents America's first national music, as well as the first commercially successful music for women composers, most of which were white & middle class. I suggest you subscribe to "The Rag Times" if you don't already- $18 annually @ 15522 Ricky Ct. Grass Valley CA 95949. The publication is loaded issue after issue with newly discovered facts and music, as well as presenting an overview of today's ragtime events, recordings and personalities. Good luck with your project.
S.K.Goodman |
(Message sent Sat 14 Oct 1995, 19:08:19 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.) |
|
|
Mechanical
Music Digest™ Archives
